paper & ink

Read this, from "Do you have a notebook?":

Somewhere along the way we’ve lost the value of privacy, of silence, of prudence. We’ve lost the pleasure of writing for the self, of the comfort of solitude, of being alone with a word or a thought, and holding it in one’s mind, like a precious secret, because it is too valuable to just give away for free. 

We are afraid of not having an audience, of not having eyes looking at us. We are afraid of being alone. We have become a lonely and haunted generation, because the point is that you keep a notebook because thinking and writing are pleasures in themselves, to be enjoyed in themselves, and you don’t need another person to “like” them for them to be so.

That is a great point.

So much of the writing we do these days is meant to be seen. There is Twitter and Facebook (and blogs) as the writer mentions; but even in school, we write for a grade or in a job we write for our pay. All of these things are written with the intention of being read by another person.

There's nothing wrong with that, per se. It's good to have other people read what we write.

However, there is something to be said for writing for its own sake - getting your thoughts down on paper for yourself.